0:00:08 > 0:00:09Now, where am I?
0:00:09 > 0:00:13People milling about. This must be the right place.
0:00:13 > 0:00:17I've been told I'll meet more Turner Prize winners here
0:00:17 > 0:00:20in this house in Glasgow than anywhere else in the world.
0:00:22 > 0:00:24He looks familiar.
0:00:24 > 0:00:28So, the winner of the 2011 Turner Prize, Martin Boyce.
0:00:28 > 0:00:30APPLAUSE AND CHEERING
0:00:33 > 0:00:37All I wanted to do was go to art school, and I went there
0:00:37 > 0:00:41and there was the most amazing group of people waiting for me
0:00:41 > 0:00:43and most of them are in this room
0:00:43 > 0:00:46which is quite amazing, 20 years on.
0:00:47 > 0:00:50Many of them are in this room too,
0:00:50 > 0:00:53an opening of the Glasgow International Arts Festival.
0:00:53 > 0:00:57..This year's Turner Prize, Simon Starling!
0:00:59 > 0:01:03Contemporary art in Britain appears to have been taken over
0:01:03 > 0:01:06by artists drawn from this group of friends in this city.
0:01:06 > 0:01:12The winner of the 2009 Turner Prize is Richard Wright.
0:01:12 > 0:01:15CHEERING
0:01:15 > 0:01:19Richard Wright. I recognised him as soon as he walked in.
0:01:21 > 0:01:23And there's another two winners -
0:01:23 > 0:01:25Jeremy Deller talking to Wolfgang Tillmans,
0:01:25 > 0:01:28but where is the head of the clan?
0:01:28 > 0:01:32The winner of the 1996 Turner Prize
0:01:32 > 0:01:34is Douglas Gordon.
0:01:34 > 0:01:37CHEERING
0:01:37 > 0:01:39Yes, Douglas Gordon,
0:01:39 > 0:01:43the first Glasgow artist of this generation to win,
0:01:43 > 0:01:47thanking "the family" in his own inimitable way.
0:01:47 > 0:01:50I'd first of all like to say thanks to my family
0:01:50 > 0:01:54and also the other family, the kind of Scotia Nostra.
0:01:54 > 0:01:57LAUGHTER They know who they are.
0:01:58 > 0:02:00Douglas Gordon's Scotia Nostra.
0:02:00 > 0:02:03He's here somewhere,
0:02:03 > 0:02:05but I can't find him.
0:02:06 > 0:02:08Which is odd, because this is his house.
0:02:12 > 0:02:15Hmm. If this crowd is the Scotia Nostra,
0:02:15 > 0:02:19does that make Douglas Gordon the Godfather?
0:02:23 > 0:02:2420 years ago,
0:02:24 > 0:02:27Glasgow's young artists set out to do their own thing
0:02:27 > 0:02:30in a city that's rather better known
0:02:30 > 0:02:35for football, fizzy drinks and fish and chips than it is for...
0:02:35 > 0:02:38well, the visual arts.
0:02:38 > 0:02:43And yet, in this place of grit and glamour,
0:02:43 > 0:02:45they created groundbreaking art
0:02:45 > 0:02:48and turned Glasgow into an international art capital
0:02:48 > 0:02:51where the unlikeliest things can happen.
0:03:17 > 0:03:20The astonishing rebirth of Glasgow's art scene
0:03:20 > 0:03:23didn't go entirely unnoticed. 20 years ago,
0:03:23 > 0:03:28it captured the imagination of a new generation of star curators
0:03:28 > 0:03:31such as this man, Hans-Ulrich Obrist.
0:03:31 > 0:03:33You know, this very small artwork in Glasgow
0:03:33 > 0:03:37has really made an unbelievable impact globally, this Glasgow model,
0:03:37 > 0:03:40or as I always call it, the Glasgow miracle.
0:03:41 > 0:03:46So, come on, Nathan. What is this Glasgow miracle? What's the secret?
0:03:47 > 0:03:51Kind of feel a bit hesitant to tell you what the magic is,
0:03:51 > 0:03:54because then I'm kind of worried
0:03:54 > 0:03:56you're going to take it from me, so...
0:03:56 > 0:03:59if there is a secret, you're not getting it from me.
0:04:32 > 0:04:37This is Frankfurt. The don was not to be found in Glasgow.
0:04:37 > 0:04:41Douglas Gordon is the visiting professor at the Stadelschule here.
0:04:43 > 0:04:46And this is his classroom.
0:04:55 > 0:04:57It says on here, "Teach me tonight.
0:04:57 > 0:05:03"Did you see that I've got a lot to learn? Ooh, teach me tonight."
0:05:03 > 0:05:05This is interesting.
0:05:05 > 0:05:09It's supposed to be a classroom
0:05:09 > 0:05:12but there are seven bottles of gin here,
0:05:12 > 0:05:16olives, six packets of matzos...
0:05:22 > 0:05:23..and an empty fridge.
0:05:27 > 0:05:28Mmm.
0:05:36 > 0:05:40In a neighbouring museum, a retrospective
0:05:40 > 0:05:44and a chance to encounter Douglas Gordon's work -
0:05:44 > 0:05:48all of it immediately striking in scale and ambition.
0:05:49 > 0:05:54A contemporary artist who works across text, photography and film.
0:06:08 > 0:06:09That kind of Hitchcock thing.
0:06:11 > 0:06:13Look at...
0:06:13 > 0:06:17That's just amazing.
0:06:17 > 0:06:22It's a bit tough to look at a vagina that big as well sometimes.
0:06:22 > 0:06:24I edited it in Glasgow
0:06:24 > 0:06:27and me and the editor were like, "This is such a..."
0:06:27 > 0:06:30- Oh, here we go. No, maybe not. - I mean, the editing is...
0:06:30 > 0:06:34There's something so human about that.
0:06:34 > 0:06:37Strange, it's a very curious...
0:06:37 > 0:06:41- physiognomy, in a way. - Yeah.- You know, like a baby.
0:06:42 > 0:06:46'In 2002, Douglas Gordon woke up one day in New York
0:06:46 > 0:06:49'with an unexpected thought.'
0:06:49 > 0:06:52It was a very strange and funny thing, you know,
0:06:52 > 0:06:59I hate the idea that ideas are divinely dropped into the world.
0:06:59 > 0:07:02However, it does happen sometimes
0:07:02 > 0:07:05that you do wake up in the morning and you think,
0:07:05 > 0:07:12"Shit, did I ever see an elephant lying down, sleeping, playing dead?"
0:07:14 > 0:07:19And by a stroke of luck, Douglas was aided and abetted by Larry Gagosian,
0:07:19 > 0:07:23the most powerful man in the art world.
0:07:23 > 0:07:26You know, one of the great things about being in New York -
0:07:26 > 0:07:31I mean, I really literally made a telephone call and said,
0:07:31 > 0:07:34"can Larry get me an elephant next week?"
0:07:34 > 0:07:38And of course, they said, "Sure, of course."
0:07:38 > 0:07:41And they did.
0:07:41 > 0:07:44The elephant's name is Minnie, actually, funnily enough,
0:07:44 > 0:07:48so Minnie came down in a huge truck.
0:07:48 > 0:07:54You're only allowed to bring in these huge trucks at about 1am
0:07:54 > 0:07:58and the gallery has a huge roller shutter door
0:07:58 > 0:08:03and Minnie comes out and she just goes up like that
0:08:03 > 0:08:07and nudges the door, and that's the door kaput, it's completely...
0:08:07 > 0:08:11- Amazing.- So then we had to walk her down the street,
0:08:11 > 0:08:14down the avenue, onto 24th Street,
0:08:14 > 0:08:18and luckily enough, the gallery had a big enough front door,
0:08:18 > 0:08:23but there was also an Ed Ruscha exhibition on
0:08:23 > 0:08:25and the elephant had a cold.
0:08:26 > 0:08:31So she was sneezing through the trunk all the time
0:08:31 > 0:08:35and I thought, "I don't even know if Larry knows about this
0:08:35 > 0:08:38"but he'll know about it tomorrow morning if she sneezes all over..."
0:08:38 > 0:08:42- Ed Ruscha.- A couple of million dollars' worth of Ed Ruscha.
0:08:49 > 0:08:51What about Glasgow and all this?
0:08:51 > 0:08:54Was there any question that you wanted to be an artist?
0:08:54 > 0:08:57Well, there was nothing inevitable about it.
0:08:57 > 0:09:04But I think my peer group that I had when I was at school in Glasgow,
0:09:04 > 0:09:07we all knew that we were committed, you know.
0:09:07 > 0:09:10Maybe we should have been committed, actually,
0:09:10 > 0:09:13but we were all committed to do this for the rest of our lives
0:09:13 > 0:09:16in some way or other.
0:09:16 > 0:09:21MUSIC: "Just Like Honey" by The Jesus and Mary Chain
0:09:25 > 0:09:29Glasgow's a magnificent city. Why do we hardly ever notice that?
0:09:29 > 0:09:31Because nobody imagines living here.
0:09:33 > 0:09:37Then think of Florence, Paris, London, New York.
0:09:37 > 0:09:39Nobody visiting them for the first time is a stranger
0:09:39 > 0:09:41because he's already visited them
0:09:41 > 0:09:43in paintings, novels, history books and films,
0:09:43 > 0:09:45but if a city hasn't been used by an artist,
0:09:45 > 0:09:48not even the inhabitants live there imaginatively.
0:09:52 > 0:09:57Alasdair Gray's impassioned plea for the redemption of Glasgow's soul,
0:09:57 > 0:09:59written in the early '80s, was a call to action.
0:09:59 > 0:10:02The Glasgow of the '60s and '70s
0:10:02 > 0:10:06that Douglas Gordon and his fellow artists were born into
0:10:06 > 0:10:11had become a city in the doldrums, on the verge of economic collapse.
0:10:13 > 0:10:15The building they were drawn to,
0:10:15 > 0:10:19Charles Rennie Mackintosh's magnificent Glasgow School of Art,
0:10:19 > 0:10:23completed in 1909, is the place where modernism began,
0:10:23 > 0:10:29a bridge from Victorian Glasgow to the modern post-industrial world.
0:10:43 > 0:10:47Generations of Glasgow's artists studied here
0:10:47 > 0:10:51and went into the world transformed. Martin Boyce was one of them.
0:10:51 > 0:10:54He came here in 1986.
0:10:54 > 0:10:57The building... I guess it's just the place.
0:10:57 > 0:10:59I used to, even before I started,
0:10:59 > 0:11:03I used to come and just stand outside the building or walk around
0:11:03 > 0:11:05and I guess there was a sense
0:11:05 > 0:11:08that this was a place where something was going to happen to me,
0:11:08 > 0:11:10you were going to meet amazing people
0:11:10 > 0:11:13and your life was really going to begin.
0:11:16 > 0:11:19By this time, in the early '80s, Glasgow School of Art
0:11:19 > 0:11:24had already produced a generation of successful figurative painters.
0:11:24 > 0:11:26Among them were Peter Howson,
0:11:26 > 0:11:28Adrian Wiszniewski, Ken Currie
0:11:28 > 0:11:33and Steven Campbell. They were known as the new Glasgow boys.
0:11:33 > 0:11:37Their work was both accessible and commercial.
0:11:41 > 0:11:43But this new group of students,
0:11:43 > 0:11:46which included Martin Boyce and Douglas Gordon,
0:11:46 > 0:11:49saw a path towards a new vision of art -
0:11:49 > 0:11:52an art that wasn't only about painting or sculpture,
0:11:52 > 0:11:55it wasn't restricted to the studio.
0:11:55 > 0:11:57It could be everything and anything,
0:11:57 > 0:11:59or nothing at all.
0:11:59 > 0:12:02They sought their inspiration from an earlier generation
0:12:02 > 0:12:05of radical conceptual artists,
0:12:05 > 0:12:07artists like Joseph Beuys.
0:12:16 > 0:12:19'And they found a home for these new ideas
0:12:19 > 0:12:22'not in Mackintosh's masterpiece,
0:12:22 > 0:12:25'but in an old girls' high school 100 yards down the road.'
0:12:28 > 0:12:30- So you haven't been to the girls' high, then?- No.
0:12:30 > 0:12:32OK, it's around the corner.
0:12:32 > 0:12:36Because the photography... Let me think, photography department
0:12:36 > 0:12:39was down that street in an old building,
0:12:39 > 0:12:41sculpture department was over there.
0:12:42 > 0:12:45Yeah, and environmental art was around the corner.
0:12:46 > 0:12:49'They weren't just taking over an old building.'
0:12:49 > 0:12:52They were embarking on a new adventure
0:12:52 > 0:12:55in the name of environmental art.
0:12:55 > 0:12:57We occupied the first half of the building,
0:12:57 > 0:13:00but then there was another kind of half of it
0:13:00 > 0:13:04that was technically unsafe, it was quite derelict.
0:13:04 > 0:13:07People would come in or out, any time of the night or day
0:13:07 > 0:13:12and either work or, you know, party or just hang out.
0:13:12 > 0:13:17And that's how a girls' high school turned into a playground
0:13:17 > 0:13:19for a new school of contemporary art.
0:13:21 > 0:13:23It's a really amazing building itself.
0:13:23 > 0:13:26It had these twin, these two staircases
0:13:26 > 0:13:29that wrapped themselves around each other,
0:13:29 > 0:13:32so you had this sort of weird... You'd be walking up the stairs
0:13:32 > 0:13:34and you'd hear footsteps
0:13:34 > 0:13:37of someone else walking upstairs, but you wouldn't meet them
0:13:37 > 0:13:40as they'd be on the other stairs, so there was a strange sort of phantom.
0:13:40 > 0:13:43Now, he looks familiar.
0:13:52 > 0:13:55It was only around the corner from the Mackintosh building,
0:13:55 > 0:13:57but it was a world apart.
0:14:02 > 0:14:06It was in the wet, leaky annex
0:14:06 > 0:14:08and I kind of liked that as a possibility
0:14:08 > 0:14:11in terms of being somewhere that you could be a gang
0:14:11 > 0:14:13and you could do your own things.
0:14:13 > 0:14:16Because we were the first year of students, really, in there,
0:14:16 > 0:14:18a lot of these spaces hadn't been used,
0:14:18 > 0:14:21so there was a freshness about that.
0:14:21 > 0:14:25It was a definite Alice in Wonderland feel to the place.
0:14:25 > 0:14:28There was this year of total anarchy and freedom,
0:14:28 > 0:14:33and that's just what you want to be doing when you're sort of 19,
0:14:33 > 0:14:34it was amazing.
0:14:39 > 0:14:41You know, it was almost like
0:14:41 > 0:14:45your friends saying, "Hey, my mum and dad are away this weekend.
0:14:45 > 0:14:47"Let's get back to my place."
0:14:47 > 0:14:51And, you know, it really was absolutely possible to do anything.
0:14:55 > 0:14:56Believe it or not,
0:14:56 > 0:15:00there was a serious purpose behind the fun and games
0:15:00 > 0:15:03and it was driven by this man, David Harding,
0:15:03 > 0:15:07a champion of public sculpture who was known for his determination
0:15:07 > 0:15:09to bring art into everyday life.
0:15:11 > 0:15:15I think the exciting thing is that when people come around this corner
0:15:15 > 0:15:18and they're confronted by these things,
0:15:18 > 0:15:21I think their imaginations are stimulated.
0:15:21 > 0:15:26David Harding's ideas would educate and influence a generation,
0:15:26 > 0:15:30and he did it alongside fellow tutor and artist Sam Ainsley.
0:15:30 > 0:15:33I mean, there was no other course like it.
0:15:33 > 0:15:35All of our students, I think,
0:15:35 > 0:15:39would say that, you know, the ideas they had
0:15:39 > 0:15:44were generated by... often by things outside the art world.
0:15:44 > 0:15:46But we did have a philosophy,
0:15:46 > 0:15:50which was that context is half the work,
0:15:50 > 0:15:54so that was a thread that ran through all our teaching,
0:15:54 > 0:15:59that the context was really fundamentally important
0:15:59 > 0:16:01to any artwork.
0:16:01 > 0:16:03Many of us came from suburban estates
0:16:03 > 0:16:07or whatever, you know, that had these concrete objects in them
0:16:07 > 0:16:08and they hadn't worked for us
0:16:08 > 0:16:11so there was a real tension there.
0:16:11 > 0:16:15We had a huge amount of rows and arguments
0:16:15 > 0:16:19because those words, environmental and art,
0:16:19 > 0:16:22just didn't seem to go together.
0:16:23 > 0:16:25I mean, now, I don't really...
0:16:25 > 0:16:29I have no problem with it now, but when I was young and feisty,
0:16:29 > 0:16:31it was a bit of a pain.
0:16:31 > 0:16:35The tutors, David Harding and Sam Ainsley, kind of mapped it out.
0:16:36 > 0:16:41The ethos of the department was that we shouldn't be driven by material
0:16:41 > 0:16:44and that we shouldn't be suffocated by technique.
0:16:44 > 0:16:48You were sent out and told you had to make a work in public
0:16:48 > 0:16:52and you had to get permission for it and you had to negotiate the space
0:16:52 > 0:16:56and that was such an exciting project for me. I loved it,
0:16:56 > 0:16:59I loved having to make those connections to the outside world.
0:16:59 > 0:17:04There was a focus on directing the students' thinking
0:17:04 > 0:17:07outside the museum and the gallery,
0:17:07 > 0:17:13that outside the studio was a rich source of ideas.
0:17:14 > 0:17:16The excitement of that
0:17:16 > 0:17:20and just the kind of feeling that this could be a way to be an artist,
0:17:20 > 0:17:24it just made me think, "Oh, there's something in this."
0:17:25 > 0:17:29We felt different, and we also felt very separate.
0:17:31 > 0:17:34It was something new beginning.
0:17:40 > 0:17:44Aha. A tall man in underpants.
0:17:44 > 0:17:46Looks like David Shrigley to me.
0:17:50 > 0:17:54Now, David Shrigley isn't a Scot by birth, but he is by adoption.
0:17:54 > 0:17:58He's also one of the freshest and funniest artists in Britain.
0:18:04 > 0:18:07His show here at the Hayward Gallery in London was a big hit.
0:18:11 > 0:18:14It's been an incredibly successful exhibition.
0:18:14 > 0:18:16It's an exhibition where you actually see
0:18:16 > 0:18:19people enjoying themselves because as you walk around it,
0:18:19 > 0:18:24you see people constantly cracking up and breaking out laughing
0:18:24 > 0:18:26and, you know, I can't really think
0:18:26 > 0:18:29of another time when I've seen that kind of response.
0:18:29 > 0:18:34And David's very simple style of drawing, I think is sort of about
0:18:34 > 0:18:37saying, "I'm not going to wow you with my virtuoso drawing."
0:18:37 > 0:18:39But I think there's a lot of levels in that work
0:18:39 > 0:18:43so I think people get a lot of different things out of it.
0:18:43 > 0:18:48Each thing, there's a little piece of imaginative charge to it,
0:18:48 > 0:18:50and that's what makes it work or not work.
0:18:57 > 0:19:00I wonder if someone as playful as Shrigley
0:19:00 > 0:19:05feels like a square peg in a round hole in today's grown-up art world.
0:19:05 > 0:19:07My motivation for going to art school
0:19:07 > 0:19:11wasn't necessarily because I wanted to be an artist
0:19:11 > 0:19:14because obviously, I didn't really know that you could be an artist,
0:19:14 > 0:19:17I didn't know there was such a profession.
0:19:18 > 0:19:22- I just wanted to be an art student, I think.- Did you?- Yeah.
0:19:22 > 0:19:23I mean, I saw...
0:19:23 > 0:19:29When I was a little kid, I saw other kids who were in the sixth form
0:19:29 > 0:19:31who were doing, I don't know, A-level art
0:19:31 > 0:19:35and I was like, "They're so cool." You know, they had long coats
0:19:35 > 0:19:40and military surplus trousers on and stuff like that
0:19:40 > 0:19:46and they had these canvas bags with "The Damned" written on it in Tipp-Ex
0:19:46 > 0:19:49and I thought, "I want to be one of those guys, an art student."
0:19:50 > 0:19:55Hmm. A tall man in a pencil skirt.
0:19:55 > 0:19:56Looks like David Shrigley to me.
0:19:56 > 0:20:01MUSIC: "Girls and Boys" by Blur
0:20:10 > 0:20:12'Yes, that was David Shrigley all right.'
0:20:13 > 0:20:16So that's the thing you lived right in the midst of?
0:20:16 > 0:20:18Yeah, I lived just up there.
0:20:20 > 0:20:23I've been here for almost a quarter of a century.
0:20:23 > 0:20:26I guess I'm a Scottish artist
0:20:26 > 0:20:30and I've been a professional in Scotland for all my professional life
0:20:30 > 0:20:32so yeah, I'm very much a Glaswegian.
0:20:33 > 0:20:37I used to live on this street here, Bentinck Street.
0:20:37 > 0:20:40This is where I...
0:20:41 > 0:20:43I can't believe we're going up this street.
0:20:43 > 0:20:46We can actually look into my bedroom window!
0:20:46 > 0:20:49Let's do that. Show me where your bedroom window was.
0:20:49 > 0:20:52It's on this side, yeah. It's number 23.
0:20:52 > 0:20:57- I had a neon sign that said "Slum" in the window for a while.- Where was it?
0:20:57 > 0:21:01That's mine, the one with the white curtains there on the first floor.
0:21:01 > 0:21:03That's mine, with the bike handle.
0:21:03 > 0:21:06This was like an extension of my studio,
0:21:06 > 0:21:09where I made all these photographic works.
0:21:15 > 0:21:19But they were sort of public artworks, I suppose.
0:21:19 > 0:21:21Notes pinned on trees and things.
0:21:21 > 0:21:26- The lost pigeon photograph...- Yes. - ..and things like that.
0:21:32 > 0:21:33And now, apparently,
0:21:33 > 0:21:37we've stopped here to look at Shrigley's piece de resistance.
0:21:37 > 0:21:40So this funny little one-storey building here
0:21:40 > 0:21:43is an old public toilets
0:21:43 > 0:21:48so I made, like, a hanging sign to make it look like a bar
0:21:48 > 0:21:52and then put "lounge" and "bar" over "ladies" and "gents."
0:21:52 > 0:21:55So your first public art project was a public toilet.
0:21:55 > 0:21:56Uh, yeah. One of my first ones.
0:21:56 > 0:22:02This was kind of, I suppose, the most successful one, and...
0:22:02 > 0:22:06A lot of people actually thought that it was a pub
0:22:06 > 0:22:10or it was being changed into a pub, and were like, "Oh, that's curious."
0:22:10 > 0:22:11You sold booze in the bar, did you?
0:22:11 > 0:22:14No, it wasn't open at all. It was just the facade.
0:22:14 > 0:22:16- Just a facade.- Yes. - I must admit it's impressive.
0:22:16 > 0:22:20- It does look like a pub, doesn't it? - Vaguely impressive!
0:22:20 > 0:22:22It was called The Ship,
0:22:22 > 0:22:25which I suppose is an anagram of "pish,"
0:22:25 > 0:22:27which is the Scottish for...
0:22:28 > 0:22:30For what?
0:22:30 > 0:22:31- For "piss".- Is it? Pish?
0:22:31 > 0:22:35- Pish. They say "shite" and "pish"... - I've learnt something today.
0:22:35 > 0:22:37..instead of "shit" and "piss".
0:22:44 > 0:22:47I think the thing about Glasgow is, as we've experienced,
0:22:47 > 0:22:50the weather is so crap, it's unbelievable.
0:22:50 > 0:22:53When the light comes out,
0:22:53 > 0:22:56- like, the light now is rather beautiful, isn't it?- Yeah.
0:22:56 > 0:22:58There's something very existential
0:22:58 > 0:23:01about places that have this kind of climate.
0:23:01 > 0:23:05In a way, you sort of forget that there is sunshine,
0:23:05 > 0:23:06there is a sun in the sky!
0:23:12 > 0:23:16- So this is the Briggait, where I had my studio.- Oh, right, here.
0:23:16 > 0:23:19It's still a studio, but it was taken over by somebody else.
0:23:19 > 0:23:22- It's a rather beautiful building, isn't it?- Yeah.
0:23:22 > 0:23:26So, over here, this is kind of the area where Transmission Gallery is.
0:23:26 > 0:23:29So your studio was very close to Transmission Gallery.
0:23:29 > 0:23:32'Transmission Gallery is an artist-run space
0:23:32 > 0:23:34'and in the late '80s and early '90s,
0:23:34 > 0:23:37'it was literally taken over by Douglas Gordon
0:23:37 > 0:23:39'and the young Scotia Nostra.
0:23:39 > 0:23:42'It was both a laboratory and a showcase for the group,
0:23:42 > 0:23:47'who brought with them new ideas, new energy and a new focus.
0:23:47 > 0:23:50'This was what Hans-Ulrich Obrist would describe
0:23:50 > 0:23:52'as the Glasgow miracle.'
0:23:52 > 0:23:57For me, as a curator at the very beginning of my activity,
0:23:57 > 0:24:00Glasgow was an epiphany, because when I arrived there
0:24:00 > 0:24:03at the beginning of the '90s, it was actually Douglas Gordon,
0:24:03 > 0:24:06Christine Borland, Rodney Buchanan, they were all there
0:24:06 > 0:24:09and Douglas was very involved with Transmission,
0:24:09 > 0:24:11I think he was part of the committee
0:24:11 > 0:24:14and not only did he do this lecture,
0:24:14 > 0:24:17the lecture was just a pretext. The main thing was really
0:24:17 > 0:24:19that we spent the entire night in the basement,
0:24:19 > 0:24:22they took me to the basement of Transmission, looking at slides.
0:24:24 > 0:24:26They had carousels and carousels of slides
0:24:26 > 0:24:28of all the young artists of Glasgow
0:24:28 > 0:24:33and I had the feeling that something extraordinary was about to happen.
0:24:40 > 0:24:46In 1993, Douglas Gordon slowed down Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho
0:24:46 > 0:24:48so that it lasted 24 hours.
0:24:55 > 0:24:58The main thing that Psycho had going for it
0:24:58 > 0:25:01is that it's become this kind of cinema icon.
0:25:01 > 0:25:03The plot is so simple, everyone knows it,
0:25:03 > 0:25:06there's a psycho, he kills people.
0:25:06 > 0:25:07MAN SCREAMS
0:25:07 > 0:25:12So I wanted to take the idea that the narrative was so well-recognised
0:25:12 > 0:25:15that when people came to see it,
0:25:15 > 0:25:17the rug of familiarity is swept away.
0:25:19 > 0:25:24You know, Transmission Gallery was a very super-important,
0:25:24 > 0:25:27probably the most important thing, I think, in Glasgow.
0:25:27 > 0:25:32You know, this is where I learned about situationism,
0:25:32 > 0:25:36when I realised that performance art
0:25:36 > 0:25:40was a valid and important part of what was possible
0:25:40 > 0:25:42for you as a young artist.
0:25:42 > 0:25:44What was also very interesting is
0:25:44 > 0:25:47the generosity and the spirit of how the artists kind of interacted
0:25:47 > 0:25:50because it was literally impossible to go to sleep
0:25:50 > 0:25:53because once we had looked at the slides, I had to make studio visits.
0:25:53 > 0:25:57One artist said, "You need to see my friend, you can't leave town yet."
0:25:57 > 0:26:00And so that sort of idea of a solidarity of the artists
0:26:00 > 0:26:03working with each other, I just was absolutely mesmerised.
0:26:09 > 0:26:13I think it's difficult to imagine Glasgow
0:26:13 > 0:26:16without Transmission Gallery in some form or another.
0:26:16 > 0:26:18I remember when I first started, it was so...
0:26:18 > 0:26:21- (GASPS)- this weight of what people had done
0:26:21 > 0:26:24and you were going in, and eventually, you just realise
0:26:24 > 0:26:26you have got to do what you want to do.
0:26:26 > 0:26:29It wouldn't be a dynamically exciting place if we were trying to fit in
0:26:29 > 0:26:31with what initial premises were.
0:26:31 > 0:26:34It has to be that each committee gets on with doing what it wants to do
0:26:34 > 0:26:38and taking it a wee bit further or a wee bit in the other direction.
0:26:38 > 0:26:41It was very much a "muck in and get on with it" attitude
0:26:41 > 0:26:45and as I say, the sense of art or culture as sort of social action
0:26:45 > 0:26:50rather than just stuff to look at or contemplate was really vivid.
0:26:50 > 0:26:54Making conceptual art as a career move would be a pretty foolish move.
0:26:54 > 0:26:57I mean, to be an effective painter would be a good career move.
0:26:57 > 0:26:59The whole desire to bring artists
0:26:59 > 0:27:03from the rest of the world into Glasgow was really vibrant.
0:27:03 > 0:27:06Some of the artists that were involved with the gallery
0:27:06 > 0:27:08were travelling themselves to do exhibitions elsewhere
0:27:08 > 0:27:12and meeting other people in the world. They were going to New York
0:27:12 > 0:27:14or Rotterdam or London and were in group shows
0:27:14 > 0:27:17and were coming across other artists, and I think there was a feeling
0:27:17 > 0:27:20they wanted to bring some of that back to Glasgow
0:27:20 > 0:27:22through the mechanism of Transmission.
0:27:22 > 0:27:25We had this great sense of sort of confidence that we could,
0:27:25 > 0:27:28you could just get on the phone to your favourite artist
0:27:28 > 0:27:30somewhere in the world and invite them,
0:27:30 > 0:27:33and often they would come, you know, so people like Lawrence Weiner,
0:27:33 > 0:27:36who was a super-important conceptual artist,
0:27:36 > 0:27:40turned up and made a beautiful show and gave a very generous talk
0:27:40 > 0:27:42and drank whiskey with us all
0:27:42 > 0:27:46and, you know, those kinds of moments were, for a young artist,
0:27:46 > 0:27:50so empowering, in a way, and demystifying.
0:27:50 > 0:27:53What they were looking for was not a lead actor or anything.
0:27:53 > 0:27:56They just wanted somebody who was more or less willing
0:27:56 > 0:27:58to talk to them about their concerns
0:27:58 > 0:28:01and their concerns had something to do with my concerns.
0:28:01 > 0:28:03What were those concerns?
0:28:03 > 0:28:06Concerns, essentially, with what the position of art was.
0:28:06 > 0:28:09How could art be integrated into the society
0:28:09 > 0:28:11and at the same time remain art?
0:28:11 > 0:28:13Broken Off is a public freehold example
0:28:13 > 0:28:16of what could be art within my responsibility.
0:28:18 > 0:28:22And when you were there,
0:28:22 > 0:28:24what struck you about the people you met
0:28:24 > 0:28:26and particularly...
0:28:26 > 0:28:28It was a better class of yob
0:28:28 > 0:28:32than the west and the north of England that I had been working in.
0:28:34 > 0:28:37Are these fellows all artists here?
0:28:37 > 0:28:38Well, yes, I would say,
0:28:38 > 0:28:42they all are. They're all prominent on the scene, yeah.
0:28:42 > 0:28:46Pretty much everybody had graduated through that department
0:28:46 > 0:28:49and from that, going out, we all started to show together,
0:28:49 > 0:28:51and from there, we joined a gallery
0:28:51 > 0:28:54which was up and running called Transmission. It's now ten years old
0:28:54 > 0:28:58and, you know, we learned how to tackle the art world from within,
0:28:58 > 0:29:00funding, the policy, power, hierarchy.
0:29:00 > 0:29:05From that, then, we started to work in other international venues.
0:29:05 > 0:29:09It was funny because we were conceptual artists, many of us,
0:29:09 > 0:29:12and there was a lot of these footballers
0:29:12 > 0:29:15who were conceptual footballers, you know, that really...
0:29:15 > 0:29:18There was a game going on in their head that didn't play any,
0:29:18 > 0:29:22didn't bear any resemblance to the game that was going on on the field.
0:29:22 > 0:29:25Would you say Douglas Gordon has inspired these younger artists
0:29:25 > 0:29:27or is he just one element of this movement?
0:29:27 > 0:29:28I guess as much as anything,
0:29:28 > 0:29:31the inspiration has come from seeing him become successful.
0:29:31 > 0:29:34I've heard that Douglas Gordon has a tattoo on his arm
0:29:34 > 0:29:36that says "Trust me."
0:29:37 > 0:29:43I travelled a lot in the early '90s and late '80s,
0:29:43 > 0:29:49and the big thing was that you just said to everyone, "Go to Glasgow."
0:29:49 > 0:29:54By now, Douglas was close to the premier league of international artists,
0:29:54 > 0:29:58but how did he score on the football pitch?
0:29:58 > 0:30:01Douglas, I got a whole bunch of questions to ask you about your art.
0:30:01 > 0:30:02I'm knackered.
0:30:02 > 0:30:06Jim Lambie was the best player.
0:30:06 > 0:30:10Douglas THOUGHT he was the best, but everybody knew it was Jim.
0:30:10 > 0:30:11We only knew him as a footballer.
0:30:11 > 0:30:14He was a sometime musician and he came along into that football
0:30:14 > 0:30:17and I remember him distinctly saying,
0:30:17 > 0:30:19"Roddy, I'm thinking about going to Art School,
0:30:19 > 0:30:20"what do you think about that?"
0:30:20 > 0:30:22And I remember thinking,
0:30:22 > 0:30:24"Aye, that's great, that's a brilliant thing to do."
0:30:24 > 0:30:26And there you go...ha-ha!
0:30:30 > 0:30:33"Somewhere down this curious little Hidden Lane," they said,
0:30:33 > 0:30:35"and just keep going."
0:30:40 > 0:30:44And that's where I'll find Jim Lambie's studio, or one of them.
0:30:47 > 0:30:50He lived and worked in New York City for three years
0:30:50 > 0:30:55but returned to Glasgow and set up here, right in the heart of town.
0:30:57 > 0:30:58Jim...?
0:30:59 > 0:31:01"You drunken..."
0:31:02 > 0:31:04I hope that's not personal.
0:31:07 > 0:31:10I think that's the artist over there.
0:31:11 > 0:31:13The one in the...
0:31:15 > 0:31:17Oh! My God, it is it's the artist in the '60s outfit
0:31:17 > 0:31:19and the dark glasses.
0:31:19 > 0:31:20HE LAUGHS
0:31:20 > 0:31:23- Yeah.- I'm just taking in your studio. - Yeah.
0:31:29 > 0:31:31And where did your inspirations come from, Jim?
0:31:31 > 0:31:33It comes from all over, really.
0:31:33 > 0:31:35A lot from just being out and about in the city,
0:31:35 > 0:31:37noticing things, looking at things,
0:31:37 > 0:31:40seeing how things have been put together by other people.
0:31:40 > 0:31:43I get a lot of sort of influence from music,
0:31:43 > 0:31:46culture that I'm sort of around a lot.
0:31:46 > 0:31:48For me it's really important to just always be looking,
0:31:48 > 0:31:53alway be listening and, you know, being open.
0:31:53 > 0:31:57MUSIC: "Loaded" by Primal Scream
0:31:57 > 0:32:00Lambie's high-impact use of colour and bold patterns and stripes
0:32:00 > 0:32:05has captured the attention of fashion designers and musicians.
0:32:05 > 0:32:09He recently created stage sets for Primal Scream's global tour.
0:32:13 > 0:32:16But it's his large scale museum installations,
0:32:16 > 0:32:19covering the floor space of the gallery, that have made him famous.
0:32:19 > 0:32:23And these have become one of the iconic images used to promote
0:32:23 > 0:32:25British culture abroad in 2012.
0:32:28 > 0:32:32Where did you get the idea first of all for your floor coverings?
0:32:32 > 0:32:37It really came from just messing around with little bits of duct tape
0:32:37 > 0:32:42and making small sculptures with scotch tape, duct tape etc.
0:32:42 > 0:32:47And then because I'd been using the tape that just developed up again
0:32:47 > 0:32:50thinking about the architecture and navigating the architecture
0:32:50 > 0:32:55round the room, and then the colours started to come in, because then
0:32:55 > 0:33:00I was thinking in order to accentuate the idea of the architecture of the space
0:33:00 > 0:33:02by using different coloured strips,
0:33:02 > 0:33:05then you would start to see the pattern emerging.
0:33:05 > 0:33:09And of course that then brings in other conversations about music
0:33:09 > 0:33:13because you're getting a rhythm and a beat going through the piece.
0:33:15 > 0:33:17So then, you know, you're taking the strip of tape
0:33:17 > 0:33:21and you're repeating that until you meet yourself in the middle.
0:33:21 > 0:33:25# Just what is it that you want to do? #
0:33:26 > 0:33:30Lambie often uses objects he's found in second hand shops
0:33:30 > 0:33:31and salvage yards directly in his work.
0:33:33 > 0:33:35Or he'll transform them.
0:33:35 > 0:33:39These old leather belts are scaled up and rendered in steel
0:33:39 > 0:33:42by his workshop to create giant metal sculptures.
0:33:58 > 0:34:01He's even been known to take that sense of discovery
0:34:01 > 0:34:03to its ultimate conclusion...
0:34:04 > 0:34:08Turning up empty-handed to create the show on the spot.
0:34:11 > 0:34:16At the beginning if I went abroad, I would turn up without any materials
0:34:16 > 0:34:19and I would go about the town and try and pull things from junk shops
0:34:19 > 0:34:23or things that were on the street
0:34:23 > 0:34:28and use those materials to produce a show.
0:34:28 > 0:34:33And I did a show in the South of France and there was no junk shops
0:34:33 > 0:34:38and there was very little stuff lying about the streets,
0:34:38 > 0:34:43but because I'd spent so much time IN the space, I began to notice things about the architecture of it,
0:34:43 > 0:34:47so the walls were only, like, this thick,
0:34:47 > 0:34:54so the only material that I had in abundance was my duty-free cigarettes.
0:34:56 > 0:35:00The measurements were just about perfect that I could drill
0:35:00 > 0:35:05through the hole in the gallery wall and the curator would give me a light
0:35:05 > 0:35:09from the other side and I'd smoke the cigarette down through the wall.
0:35:09 > 0:35:11So I did a whole constellation on these walls.
0:35:11 > 0:35:14Now, that work would never have existed
0:35:14 > 0:35:16unless I'd set that challenge up for myself.
0:35:16 > 0:35:19You know, it was in France, so it was kind of perfect because
0:35:19 > 0:35:26a lot of the French were talking about nice poetics about the piece -
0:35:26 > 0:35:29Jean Genet, when he was in prison,
0:35:29 > 0:35:32they would take a piece of straw from their mattress
0:35:32 > 0:35:37and they would burrow a hole through the wall to the other cell and they
0:35:37 > 0:35:40would share cigarettes through the straw in the wall,
0:35:40 > 0:35:43so these are the types of things, these stories,
0:35:43 > 0:35:46these things would never have appeared.
0:36:02 > 0:36:06Glasgow's Transmission generation - The Scotia Nostra -
0:36:06 > 0:36:08are now spread out across the world.
0:36:13 > 0:36:15I'm back in Frankfurt at the Museum of Modern Art.
0:36:17 > 0:36:22Douglas Gordon's life and work have been hung all over these walls.
0:36:22 > 0:36:25This room is called Straight To Hell.
0:36:28 > 0:36:31Of course, this takes you back
0:36:31 > 0:36:35to this sort of great piece of yours, 24 Hour Psycho.
0:36:35 > 0:36:38Have you spoiled this yourself or is this...?
0:36:38 > 0:36:42- I don't think I spoiled it at all, I mean, I think...- It concluded.
0:36:42 > 0:36:44HE LAUGHS
0:36:44 > 0:36:48If we had a long weekend together in my studio,
0:36:48 > 0:36:51you would see how much I love all these things.
0:36:52 > 0:36:56I suppose there's something for me,
0:36:56 > 0:37:01something very attractive about the idea of excess
0:37:01 > 0:37:06and loving something too much, getting too close to it.
0:37:08 > 0:37:10There's a fantastic risk involved in that
0:37:10 > 0:37:15that you're going to destroy the thing that you love,
0:37:15 > 0:37:19so I don't think...yeah, it's not destroyed,
0:37:19 > 0:37:24- but there's evidence of... - Tampering.
0:37:24 > 0:37:27..Some passion. Yeah, passionate tampering.
0:37:27 > 0:37:29This is another hero.
0:37:30 > 0:37:32Again, I'm still trying
0:37:32 > 0:37:34but I'll never be quite as good as Laurence.
0:37:34 > 0:37:37Laurence looks just like Tolstoy!
0:37:37 > 0:37:39Yeah. He's getting more and more...
0:37:39 > 0:37:42I could tell a story about every picture here.
0:37:43 > 0:37:46You know, why did I keep all of this?
0:37:46 > 0:37:49This is a drawing that my son made.
0:37:49 > 0:37:51He lives in New York.
0:37:51 > 0:37:55He called me actually one day and said,
0:37:55 > 0:37:58"Daddy, do you know Picasso?"
0:37:58 > 0:38:01And I said, "Not personally, son."
0:38:01 > 0:38:03- "Happy Halloween, Daddy."- Yep.
0:38:06 > 0:38:08So this is really a sort of changing
0:38:08 > 0:38:14and transformational portrait of you and your memories,
0:38:14 > 0:38:17of your obsessions,
0:38:17 > 0:38:19of your fond observations.
0:38:19 > 0:38:23Well, you know, it's... why do we keep things?
0:38:23 > 0:38:27I don't know, I kind of felt that, let's say,
0:38:27 > 0:38:31if I died today, what would my children find
0:38:31 > 0:38:36when they would go to my studio to visit
0:38:36 > 0:38:37and find what I'd left behind?
0:38:37 > 0:38:41And I thought it would be kind of interesting for me
0:38:41 > 0:38:43to imagine that I was already dead.
0:38:43 > 0:38:47And I sometimes feel as if I'm half-dead anyway, so...erm.
0:38:47 > 0:38:50There's quite a lot of scary stuff here, too.
0:38:50 > 0:38:51I think it's all very...
0:38:53 > 0:38:56- I don't think it's scary...at all. - Hmm.
0:38:56 > 0:39:01You know, this is a line form the last book from Don DeLillo
0:39:01 > 0:39:05and it just says, "Missing people never make sense."
0:39:05 > 0:39:09And I think a lot to do with this exhibition here in Frankfurt,
0:39:09 > 0:39:12the whole thing is about,
0:39:12 > 0:39:16someone is missing and you know,
0:39:16 > 0:39:20if you desire to be missing, what kind of a person does that make you?
0:39:23 > 0:39:27Absent, you may say.
0:39:27 > 0:39:30Mm-hmm...irresponsible, negligent, guilty.
0:39:33 > 0:39:35Is that something...does that...?
0:39:35 > 0:39:40Well, my girlfriend calls me the worst Polish Jew that she knows.
0:39:40 > 0:39:42The most guilty, negligent...
0:39:45 > 0:39:48- So, yeah.- And how...wait...
0:39:49 > 0:39:51..you're negligent... I mean, I know that
0:39:51 > 0:39:55because while we've been together you've been talking about Ruthie,
0:39:55 > 0:40:00you've been talking about your child, where you've been in Israel,
0:40:00 > 0:40:01here, there and everywhere,
0:40:01 > 0:40:06so you're ambient, you're all over the place.
0:40:06 > 0:40:10Is that how you like to be, all over the place?
0:40:11 > 0:40:14I mean, here, you're all over the place here too.
0:40:14 > 0:40:16Yeah, absolutely.
0:40:16 > 0:40:19I mean, one could call it...an infection.
0:40:19 > 0:40:22THEY CHUCKLE
0:40:22 > 0:40:25Let's say this, you know. I have bad dreams sometimes.
0:40:32 > 0:40:38A situation whereby the solar panel charges the battery
0:40:38 > 0:40:40and at some point that triggers the grinder
0:40:40 > 0:40:44which will sever the chain and allow the battery to come down
0:40:44 > 0:40:46and destroy the camera...
0:40:47 > 0:40:51Simon Starling is also a professor at the Staedelschule in Frankfurt.
0:40:52 > 0:40:57When he's not here or at his home in Copenhagen, he's likely to
0:40:57 > 0:41:01be in some exotic corner of the globe on an elaborate journey
0:41:01 > 0:41:05until he returns to the gallery with a curious object
0:41:05 > 0:41:07and a story to tell,
0:41:07 > 0:41:09such as this shed.
0:41:09 > 0:41:12The Shedboatshed project is a small wooden hut
0:41:12 > 0:41:16that I found on the side of the river in Basel
0:41:16 > 0:41:20and it had this paddle on the side and it sort of prompted this idea
0:41:20 > 0:41:22of creating a mobile architecture system with the shed,
0:41:22 > 0:41:26and I made a boat from the shed, from the wood from the shed,
0:41:26 > 0:41:31and then made this journey 10km downriver to the museum
0:41:31 > 0:41:33and then the shed was rebuilt in the museum.
0:41:33 > 0:41:37But in that process, the shed kind of gained all these scars
0:41:37 > 0:41:39and holes and you could almost sort of read the structure
0:41:39 > 0:41:42of the boat in the building when you walked around in it.
0:41:42 > 0:41:46There was this strange kind of new layer of history
0:41:46 > 0:41:48that had been kind of laid on top of the building.
0:41:48 > 0:41:52MUSIC: "Teardrops" by Massive Attack
0:41:52 > 0:41:54Another waterborne work of Starling's
0:41:54 > 0:41:59took place on a loch near Glasgow and explored the idea of, erm...
0:41:59 > 0:42:02autoxylopyrocycloboros.
0:42:05 > 0:42:08Or in other words, feeding a wooden boat to its own engine...
0:42:13 > 0:42:15..until it sinks.
0:42:21 > 0:42:24And now he's made a puppet show of it.
0:42:25 > 0:42:28And I'm not sure where the cactus came from.
0:42:28 > 0:42:34- That's you, isn't it?- Yeah, exactly. - That's so you.- Yeah.- Who did that?
0:42:34 > 0:42:39This puppet maker in Copenhagen.
0:42:39 > 0:42:41We made a piece of puppet theatre
0:42:41 > 0:42:47which is again a little bit of an experiment.
0:42:47 > 0:42:52A way to try and find, sort of, make an exhibition in a fundamental way.
0:42:54 > 0:42:56And I thought that it'd be nice,
0:42:56 > 0:43:00all these stories of boats that I've worked with over the years
0:43:00 > 0:43:03were conflated into a single story, a single narrative
0:43:03 > 0:43:08so that Shedboatshed and Autoxylo, the Steamboat project
0:43:08 > 0:43:15and so and so on and we strung together this 20, 25-minute-long piece of puppet theatre,
0:43:15 > 0:43:17essentially for children.
0:43:17 > 0:43:22It's very closely related to early silent movies, I suppose,
0:43:22 > 0:43:29Buster Keaton, calamitous kind of man against the elements idea.
0:43:29 > 0:43:33- Yes!- Which seemed to have a certain sense.
0:43:33 > 0:43:37And my hair gets progressively more confused
0:43:37 > 0:43:41and messy as we go through the thing.
0:43:43 > 0:43:46I suppose my work is often talked about in relation
0:43:46 > 0:43:51to conceptual art and this idea of the artist leaving the studio
0:43:51 > 0:43:55and going and sort of making work in the world in a conscious way
0:43:55 > 0:43:59and that sort of made sense to me, I think, from a fairly early point.
0:44:03 > 0:44:10In Venice in 2003, Simon exhibited Island For Weeds.
0:44:10 > 0:44:12Yes, for weeds.
0:44:12 > 0:44:14Originally created for Loch Lomond,
0:44:14 > 0:44:20this is in fact a rhododendron bush, a plant so stigmatised
0:44:20 > 0:44:24in Scotland that the authorities refer to it as a pestilence.
0:44:24 > 0:44:29So for Simon Starling, transplanting this work to Venice is a kind of redemption.
0:44:29 > 0:44:32What you see here is a sort of prototype
0:44:32 > 0:44:34for a larger structure
0:44:34 > 0:44:38which was meant to be on Loch Lomond at some point,
0:44:38 > 0:44:41so I think we've hit a good size.
0:44:41 > 0:44:44It's fairly massive, but not overwhelming.
0:44:45 > 0:44:46And also, strangely,
0:44:46 > 0:44:49Island has established this kind of dialogue
0:44:49 > 0:44:52with these grotesque baroque paintings
0:44:52 > 0:44:56and the slightly camp pink blooms of the rhododendrons
0:44:56 > 0:45:00are starting to talk to the nymphs on the wall in quite a nice way,
0:45:00 > 0:45:01I think, so yeah, it's good.
0:45:06 > 0:45:08Another kind of conversation
0:45:08 > 0:45:10is going on in the world of Karla Black,
0:45:10 > 0:45:15who represented Scotland at the Venice Biennale in 2011.
0:45:16 > 0:45:18Karla is a kind of alchemist
0:45:18 > 0:45:21who draws her materials from the stuff of everyday life.
0:45:23 > 0:45:27She calls her beautiful, fragile works
0:45:27 > 0:45:31"almost sculptures, almost paintings...
0:45:32 > 0:45:35"..almost performance art."
0:45:35 > 0:45:39I was told in the sculpture department,
0:45:39 > 0:45:41one of the first things we were told was,
0:45:41 > 0:45:44"What a sculpture is is something that stands up by itself,
0:45:44 > 0:45:46"that's what defines a sculpture."
0:45:46 > 0:45:51Immediately anybody tells me something is something,
0:45:51 > 0:45:55it just calls up the opposite in my mind,
0:45:55 > 0:45:57that you immediately think, "Is it?"
0:45:59 > 0:46:04The materials that I use are left raw or untransformed.
0:46:04 > 0:46:09So say they are a mixture of very traditional art-making materials
0:46:09 > 0:46:13like plaster and chalk and paint,
0:46:13 > 0:46:20and paper and other more everyday substances like make-up and soap.
0:46:21 > 0:46:24They're often quite sort of precarious as well.
0:46:24 > 0:46:26They look like they might fall over.
0:46:28 > 0:46:30I don't want them to look...
0:46:32 > 0:46:39..too stable and I want you to see within them the struggle
0:46:39 > 0:46:43that it took to make them be able to stand up by themselves.
0:46:43 > 0:46:47You know, it wasn't easy and it's not easy for them
0:46:47 > 0:46:49to continue to stand there.
0:46:50 > 0:46:53Often people will ask, "What does the work mean?
0:46:53 > 0:46:55"What does that mean?
0:46:55 > 0:46:57"What is the meaning of this sculpture?"
0:46:57 > 0:47:01I can't understand that question.
0:47:01 > 0:47:04I don't know what THAT means.
0:47:16 > 0:47:20It's easy to see why these artists are sought-after all over the world.
0:47:22 > 0:47:25But they always come home to Glasgow.
0:47:30 > 0:47:34When you think about the city that Glasgow was, it must have been a very prosperous city,
0:47:34 > 0:47:38but it's a sort of curious city architecturally in that
0:47:38 > 0:47:43they just had a blip which was, I don't know, 1960s to the 1990s...
0:47:43 > 0:47:49- Where they did everything wrong. - ..Where they did everything wrong.
0:47:49 > 0:47:52Glasgow wasn't bombed that heavily during the war,
0:47:52 > 0:47:55but you'd be forgiven for thinking it was.
0:47:55 > 0:47:58It was actually bombed by planning!
0:47:58 > 0:48:01- LAUGHING:- They were sort of co-conspirators.- Yeah.- The Nazis.
0:48:01 > 0:48:04They did far more than the Germans ever did during the war.
0:48:04 > 0:48:10Glasgow decided to destroy itself rather than let some enemy do it for it.
0:48:11 > 0:48:15I suppose on a practical level, it facilitated certain buildings
0:48:15 > 0:48:18being available at certain times.
0:48:18 > 0:48:21So finding space for you guys to find artists' spaces,
0:48:21 > 0:48:24that was quite easy.
0:48:24 > 0:48:27Yeah, it was, there's always been loads of studio space in Glasgow.
0:48:27 > 0:48:31I think the problem is, I've never had a studio that was heated,
0:48:31 > 0:48:32even to this day,
0:48:32 > 0:48:35I think that's the ultimate luxury.
0:48:35 > 0:48:37This is where Richard and Martin
0:48:37 > 0:48:40and a whole bunch of other people have got their studio.
0:48:41 > 0:48:45- This is, er...- That's rather grand. - Yeah, it's quite nice.
0:48:45 > 0:48:49I could have...and that's warm as well in there. They've got heating!
0:48:49 > 0:48:52But the thing is, you're not allowed to make a mess.
0:48:57 > 0:48:59Martin Boyce's studio is...
0:48:59 > 0:49:01tidy.
0:49:01 > 0:49:05It bears traces of his meticulous approach to his work,
0:49:05 > 0:49:09and his distinctive visual style is everywhere.
0:49:13 > 0:49:17He's best known for making abstract environments -
0:49:17 > 0:49:22a library with reading table and lanterns.
0:49:26 > 0:49:28Urban indoor parks like this one,
0:49:28 > 0:49:31recently redesigned for a Sonia Rykiel fashion show.
0:49:41 > 0:49:46He won the Turner Prize in 2011 with this unique visual language
0:49:46 > 0:49:49and his re-imagining of everyday objects -
0:49:49 > 0:49:54tables, lights, even wastepaper baskets -
0:49:54 > 0:49:58are all based on a single image of a concrete tree.
0:49:58 > 0:50:03Martin, this is such a familiar and important sort of motif in your work,
0:50:03 > 0:50:05this piece is so critical.
0:50:05 > 0:50:09Tell me the story of this and the roots of it.
0:50:09 > 0:50:15In 2005, I was offered this fellowship in Berlin.
0:50:15 > 0:50:17Round about that time, I had come across
0:50:17 > 0:50:22these images of these four concrete
0:50:22 > 0:50:24constructivist modernist trees
0:50:24 > 0:50:27that were made for a garden by Robert Mallet-Stevens
0:50:27 > 0:50:30and they were made by these brothers,
0:50:30 > 0:50:32these sculptors called Yann and Joe Martell.
0:50:32 > 0:50:34It was 1925.
0:50:35 > 0:50:38I was really interested in the brutalism of concrete
0:50:38 > 0:50:43and the muscularity of it, the sculptural quality of it
0:50:43 > 0:50:48and the way that that form in nature had come together in this object.
0:50:48 > 0:50:50So it had this very urban feel to it.
0:50:50 > 0:50:56I kept going back to the forms that I found with the tree
0:50:56 > 0:51:00and as I reduced this and played around with little forms,
0:51:00 > 0:51:05I began to see little possibilities for spaces created within them.
0:51:05 > 0:51:12So by repeating this tree within this linear pattern,
0:51:12 > 0:51:16I created this graphic forest and then through this forest,
0:51:16 > 0:51:21language began to emerge, so even dealing with these
0:51:21 > 0:51:28very geometric forms, something quite poetic was happening as well.
0:51:29 > 0:51:34The lamps also, they look like little trees, so the table-top becomes like a...
0:51:34 > 0:51:36A park.
0:51:36 > 0:51:38Yeah, or I kept thinking of it
0:51:38 > 0:51:43because again, they're very geometric, modernist forms
0:51:43 > 0:51:47that are somewhere between a tree and a streetlamp, so yeah.
0:51:47 > 0:51:53I kept think about walking home when you've been with your pals or been on a date,
0:51:53 > 0:51:55you know, your first date at school,
0:51:55 > 0:51:58you walk home and your head's swimming with all these emotional moments.
0:51:58 > 0:52:02It seemed to conjure up this feeling of that walk home
0:52:02 > 0:52:04through the town that you live in.
0:52:12 > 0:52:16MUSIC: "Dry The Rain" by Beta Band
0:52:23 > 0:52:26# This is the definition of my life
0:52:26 > 0:52:29# Lying in bed in the sunrise
0:52:29 > 0:52:32# Choking on the vitamin tablet
0:52:32 > 0:52:36# The doctor gave in the hope of saving me
0:52:36 > 0:52:39# In the hope of saving me. #
0:52:42 > 0:52:47I was just thinking about this gallery and where it sits.
0:52:47 > 0:52:50- As you come round that corner with the pet shop.- Yeah.
0:52:50 > 0:52:52The other side of the street, I mean, that's the grit
0:52:52 > 0:52:56- and the glamour.- I mean, exactly, it's all mixed up in Glasgow
0:52:56 > 0:52:59and that's what we have, the grit and the glamour
0:52:59 > 0:53:02and the brutality and the beautiful buildings.
0:53:02 > 0:53:06If you're surrounded by beauty the whole time,
0:53:06 > 0:53:10then you have no touch with the present and reality, I think,
0:53:10 > 0:53:14and I think this city has made us be in touch with the present.
0:53:14 > 0:53:19I don't think you feel cosseted in historic monuments.
0:53:19 > 0:53:22You don't feel cosseted in historic buildings.
0:53:22 > 0:53:25You have this great brutalist and Victorian
0:53:25 > 0:53:28and Georgian Architecture and industrial architecture.
0:53:28 > 0:53:30The history of ship building and things like that.
0:53:30 > 0:53:34But you've got a contemporary life that goes on.
0:53:34 > 0:53:40It's very present and I think that's something I've always been very interested in,
0:53:40 > 0:53:44the present and how that is shaped,
0:53:44 > 0:53:48so you've got a lot of empty buildings and space
0:53:48 > 0:53:52and I think for somebody who's creative, certainly,
0:53:52 > 0:53:56and filmmakers and writers and musicians,
0:53:56 > 0:54:00for me, that is an uncommon situation in a city,
0:54:00 > 0:54:03to be able to have that space.
0:54:03 > 0:54:07It happens in areas and then it changes,
0:54:07 > 0:54:11like New York had space in the '60s, now it doesn't.
0:54:11 > 0:54:13London had space, now it doesn't.
0:54:13 > 0:54:15Glasgow has space.
0:54:15 > 0:54:20Toby Webster was also a student on the Environmental Art course
0:54:20 > 0:54:23and on the committee of Transmission Gallery in the mid-nineties.
0:54:25 > 0:54:29Now he's responsible for the careers of many
0:54:29 > 0:54:32of the artists of this Turner Prize generation.
0:54:32 > 0:54:37The other aspect of a lot of these artists' work is that
0:54:37 > 0:54:40quite a lot of art, a lot of it is about its commercial value
0:54:40 > 0:54:43but these artists don't seem to be in that space.
0:54:43 > 0:54:46Although they have to make a living,
0:54:46 > 0:54:51that's not the purpose, to create objects which then get sold.
0:54:51 > 0:54:57If these pieces are sellable, I work out a way that that's possible,
0:54:57 > 0:54:59and that's been for me with everything.
0:54:59 > 0:55:03I just immediately think these are ideas that are important
0:55:03 > 0:55:08and the history of art is not just about the value of something,
0:55:08 > 0:55:11and the market has changed towards them
0:55:11 > 0:55:14rather than them changing towards the market.
0:55:18 > 0:55:22This beautiful gold leaf wall painting is by Richard Wright,
0:55:22 > 0:55:25and it won him the Turner Prize in 2009.
0:55:28 > 0:55:31In 2010, he erased it.
0:55:33 > 0:55:36Toby Webster has worked with Richard Wright for over ten years.
0:55:36 > 0:55:40I mean, something like Richard Wright,
0:55:40 > 0:55:42his works are transitory,
0:55:42 > 0:55:47they're not about being there for ever
0:55:47 > 0:55:52and they have a power because of that, and that's something that is
0:55:52 > 0:55:55more interesting than if he was making canvases.
0:55:55 > 0:56:02It just wouldn't be him, and the work survives on that kind of edge...
0:56:02 > 0:56:05When he's decided to remove it, it's gone.
0:56:05 > 0:56:08It's usually rubbed down and taken off.
0:56:08 > 0:56:10And the idea with Richard really is the work,
0:56:10 > 0:56:14that you go and see the work rather than the work comes and sees you.
0:56:15 > 0:56:20Today Glasgow's Kelvingrove Museum is host to a very unusual event -
0:56:20 > 0:56:24the first exhibition of Richard Wright's drawings on paper.
0:56:26 > 0:56:28They give a rare insight into how he works.
0:56:28 > 0:56:34I draw every day, and drawing is a process for me of thinking.
0:56:34 > 0:56:37And often drawing leads to nothing, but it's a key part
0:56:37 > 0:56:40of what I do and an opportunity presented itself to bring
0:56:40 > 0:56:43some of these works that were made here back here.
0:56:43 > 0:56:46Many of them have come from various parts of the world.
0:56:46 > 0:56:50I think it's probably fair to say if these things hadn't gone away,
0:56:50 > 0:56:52they probably would've been destroyed by now.
0:56:52 > 0:56:55And I feel like cutting a few bits off one or two of them now, actually!
0:56:55 > 0:56:57But I can't.
0:56:58 > 0:57:01What made you approach your work in that way?
0:57:01 > 0:57:05I think there were a lot of different trajectories that brought me to that place.
0:57:05 > 0:57:08I had been a painter, a very traditional painter
0:57:08 > 0:57:11and I reached a point, I was quite young, I suppose, at that time,
0:57:11 > 0:57:14but I'd reached a point where I felt
0:57:14 > 0:57:17that what I was doing sort of belonged to another time.
0:57:19 > 0:57:20The ideas that informed me
0:57:20 > 0:57:24seemed to belong in the early 20th century or the late 19th century
0:57:24 > 0:57:29and it seemed to me that I almost had to go into another room to be a painter,
0:57:29 > 0:57:33to be outside the world and what I wanted to do was
0:57:33 > 0:57:38to try and bring the work into the world and make it part of everything else,
0:57:38 > 0:57:42so it seemed kind of obvious to just paint on the world.
0:57:44 > 0:57:47I very much liked the idea of there being nothing left when I was gone
0:57:47 > 0:57:54and it seemed to me to make the action more poignant, more sharp,
0:57:54 > 0:57:59you know, whereas in the past, the object had become the thing.
0:57:59 > 0:58:01The painting itself was the thing.
0:58:04 > 0:58:09These tantalising fragments, these remnants in a way of what
0:58:09 > 0:58:12remains of Wright's work, have drawn a huge crowd.
0:58:18 > 0:58:23It's the opening of GI, Glasgow's International Festival Of Visual Art.
0:58:23 > 0:58:26With 50 different venues across Glasgow,
0:58:26 > 0:58:31GI has turned the city into a playground for the visual arts.
0:58:33 > 0:58:36It feels like a place where anything can happen.
0:58:46 > 0:58:48While Karla Black has transformed the grand interior
0:58:48 > 0:58:51of the Gallery Of Modern Art...
0:58:53 > 0:59:01..a giant inflatable Stonehenge seems to have popped up in the very heart of the city on Glasgow Green.
0:59:08 > 0:59:12This is the work of artist Jeremy Deller
0:59:12 > 0:59:15who, though based in London, has been captured by Glasgow.
0:59:20 > 0:59:27You know, I can see how your whole career from teenager to now
0:59:27 > 0:59:30is absolutely in synch with this Glasgow school.
0:59:31 > 0:59:34I never lived here and I didn't go to college here,
0:59:34 > 0:59:36but I knew a lot of people from here
0:59:36 > 0:59:38so I used to visit a lot, so I've kept connections,
0:59:38 > 0:59:41and of course people you knew 20 years ago as struggling artists
0:59:41 > 0:59:45are know running galleries, or curators or big artists
0:59:45 > 0:59:47and so you just go with them really, with the flow
0:59:47 > 0:59:50and you keep in touch and it's a social thing, really.
0:59:52 > 0:59:54It's funny where you fit in to the art world,
0:59:54 > 0:59:56because you can fit in in a traditional way
0:59:56 > 0:59:58with the dealer system and money and auction houses,
0:59:58 > 1:00:01but there's other ways to operate as an artist
1:00:01 > 1:00:02and this is one of them,
1:00:02 > 1:00:06and I think the public understand that instinctively and they enjoy it.
1:00:06 > 1:00:08London's more difficult to work in.
1:00:08 > 1:00:11Glasgow's easier to work in, I think people are more up for it
1:00:11 > 1:00:12and there's more space.
1:00:12 > 1:00:16And people are less jaundiced and maybe cynical, I find.
1:00:16 > 1:00:19I think it's important to be curious but also again,
1:00:19 > 1:00:20with this as a background,
1:00:20 > 1:00:24to have a child-like interest in the world and not to forget that.
1:00:24 > 1:00:27And it's actually quite difficult to be open-minded a lot of the time.
1:00:27 > 1:00:31It's easier to be cynical and I'm naturally quite a cynical person, so I make art
1:00:31 > 1:00:34to make myself less cynical and more happy with the world around me.
1:00:35 > 1:00:38Public art doesn't have to be pompous,
1:00:38 > 1:00:40doesn't have to be something you admire,
1:00:40 > 1:00:43it can be something you take part in and part of,
1:00:43 > 1:00:45so I'm very happy with this.
1:00:45 > 1:00:48- I think we should have a bounce now. - We should have a bounce.
1:00:48 > 1:00:54MUSIC: "Lust For Life" by Iggy Pop
1:00:54 > 1:00:58I think that artists from Glasgow have won the Turner Prize
1:00:58 > 1:01:00because they're not in London,
1:01:00 > 1:01:03so they don't have this pull of the galleries
1:01:03 > 1:01:06and so they don't feel they have to satisfy the galleries.
1:01:06 > 1:01:09It's quite a good thing to have a distance from the art market,
1:01:09 > 1:01:12because it means you don't get too influenced by it
1:01:12 > 1:01:13and you just do your thing.
1:01:33 > 1:01:36Meanwhile, in Frankfurt, Douglas Gordon
1:01:36 > 1:01:41and Simon Starling are engaged in a new adventure.
1:01:41 > 1:01:43In a way, they're starting all over again.
1:01:43 > 1:01:48The first time I came to the school here in Frankfurt,
1:01:48 > 1:01:51I felt something very familiar.
1:01:54 > 1:02:01'What we want to come from Frankfurt is something similar to what we had in Glasgow.
1:02:01 > 1:02:03'It doesn't have to be always about Berlin,
1:02:03 > 1:02:07'it doesn't have to be always about London,
1:02:07 > 1:02:09'it doesn't have to be always about Paris.
1:02:09 > 1:02:13'Things can pop up and perpetuate.
1:02:14 > 1:02:17'These are the conditions where the future comes from.'
1:02:20 > 1:02:22MUSIC: "Solid Air" by John Martyn.
1:02:22 > 1:02:26'Glasgow's a magnificent city. Why do we hardly ever notice that?'
1:02:26 > 1:02:29'Because nobody imagines living here.'
1:02:29 > 1:02:33'Then think of Florence, Paris, London or New York.
1:02:33 > 1:02:36'Nobody visiting them for the first time is a stranger
1:02:36 > 1:02:40'because he's already visited them in paintings, novels, history books and films.
1:02:40 > 1:02:43'But if a city hasn't been used by an artist,
1:02:43 > 1:02:47'not even the inhabitants live there imaginatively.'
1:02:51 > 1:02:56Looking at Glasgow now, I can see traces of all these artists.
1:02:56 > 1:02:59And the echoes of a conversation with this city
1:02:59 > 1:03:01which has been going on for many years
1:03:01 > 1:03:04and is likely to continue for many more to come.
1:03:40 > 1:03:43You can see more of the work of these artists
1:03:43 > 1:03:48and work from a new generation from Glasgow School Of Art on:
1:03:50 > 1:03:53Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd